Casting to Google Home/Nest Hub stutters or is slow motion

[bruor 43]

I'm a convert form Jellyfin, one thing that always annoyed me with Jellyfin is that Google home would allow a stream to be cast, but the device would shut off it's screen while the Live TV channel or media was playing.

I tried to test that tonight with EMBY, but both the Hub, and Hub Max don't quite work as expected.  The first 1-2 seconds of video play fine, and then the audio starts to glitch or stutter and the frame rate slows.  

Is there a way to pull any helpful logging information from these devices or will a standard server log be enough to go on? 

[bruor 43]

This appears to be content specific,  I've found some media that plays without issue. 

[Luke 42083]

22 hours ago, bruor said:

I'm a convert form Jellyfin, one thing that always annoyed me with Jellyfin is that Google home would allow a stream to be cast, but the device would shut off it's screen while the Live TV channel or media was playing.

I tried to test that tonight with EMBY, but both the Hub, and Hub Max don't quite work as expected.  The first 1-2 seconds of video play fine, and then the audio starts to glitch or stutter and the frame rate slows.  

Is there a way to pull any helpful logging information from these devices or will a standard server log be enough to go on? 

Hi, please attach the emby server log, and the ffmpeg log (if there was one). Thanks.

[bruor 43]

I was wrong in my previous assertion that some media didn't stutter, I just didn't wait long enough for it to happen in one instance. 

I tested a bunch of different devices on this end for the log collection, the only device that didn't stutter was the Chromecast Ultra. 

livetv to Chromecast ultra (Wireless) ffmpeg-directstream-8c26d7cf-5afc-4e6d-b122-d8538dc77a99_1.txt livetv to Chromecast ultra (Wired) ffmpeg-directstream-1fadbbe9-8b44-4d45-872f-c81b52c2e204_1.txt livetv to Nest Hub Max ffmpeg-directstream-e5dcbe92-e7af-4e26-bc8c-9c522fe6b1bb_1.txt livetv to OG chromecast ffmpeg-directstream-22418d98-1046-4478-bb73-e2a5e52a428b_1.txt strm file to OG chromecast ffmpeg-remux-d4b36501-333d-4d80-8cda-ff3b009bc3aa_1.txt embyserver (2).txt

[Luke 42083]

On 2/12/2023 at 12:41 PM, bruor said:

I was wrong in my previous assertion that some media didn't stutter, I just didn't wait long enough for it to happen in one instance. 

I tested a bunch of different devices on this end for the log collection, the only device that didn't stutter was the Chromecast Ultra. 

livetv to Chromecast ultra (Wireless) ffmpeg-directstream-8c26d7cf-5afc-4e6d-b122-d8538dc77a99_1.txt 28.54 kB · 0 downloads livetv to Chromecast ultra (Wired) ffmpeg-directstream-1fadbbe9-8b44-4d45-872f-c81b52c2e204_1.txt 18.23 kB · 0 downloads livetv to Nest Hub Max ffmpeg-directstream-e5dcbe92-e7af-4e26-bc8c-9c522fe6b1bb_1.txt 21.81 kB · 0 downloads livetv to OG chromecast ffmpeg-directstream-22418d98-1046-4478-bb73-e2a5e52a428b_1.txt 21.79 kB · 0 downloads strm file to OG chromecast ffmpeg-remux-d4b36501-333d-4d80-8cda-ff3b009bc3aa_1.txt 582.86 kB · 0 downloads embyserver (2).txt 325.84 kB · 0 downloads

Did you try lowering the Chromecast quality setting in the casting app?

[bruor 43]

I did not know that was an option, how would I test that? 

[bruor 43]

I can't find an option to adjust chromecast quality while it's attempting to stream from the Emby Android app. 

If I play a stream in the android app, I can click the gear icon to change what quality it plays at on the phone, but as soon as I cast,  the bitrate I had it set to is ignored and the stream is set to whatever quality the server negotiates to the device that is playing the stream. 

A gear does show up on the remote control screen while casting, but it doesn't do anything if I click on it.  

[GrimReaper 4745]

9 minutes ago, bruor said:

I can't find an option to adjust chromecast quality while it's attempting to stream from the Emby Android app.

You should have Chromecast quality settings in your Android app settings, Playback tab. 

[Luke 42083]

@bruor please let us know if this helps. Thanks.

[bruor 43]

One video that seems to have issues is a 6mbps 1080p stream.   Even if I set the quality down to 720p 2mbps it'll still stutter and do weird things from time to time.  It does freeze less often though, and doesn't exhibit the slow motion effect that I see when it isn't transcoding. 

I have a wired ethernet adapter for the older chromecasts around here somewhere and will re-test with that to see if I can rule out wifi as a cause, but I don't think it's a factor because we use it for Oculus airlink in the same area.

I'll re-run some more in depth testing when I have some free time and report back with more results.  

[Luke 42083]

Hi, are you still running into this?

[bruor 43]

Yes though I haven't had time to try a deep dive compare across them all.  I have a feeling it's something to do with resource limitations on the cast targets.  I'm only basing this on the fact that lower bitrate/res seems to cause less of a problem.  

[bruor 43]

I factory reset the smaller nest hub and it is no longer having playback issues. 

[bruor 43]

Factory reset on nest hub max resulted in it doing an update just after setup, probably a bug on Google's end.  Casting to the hub max has no anomalies now. 

[Luke 42083]

Thanks for the feedback !